THE NEW MONGOLIA

one point we passed an almost perfect square formed
on the ground by the bones of camels. Within the
square were tattered remnants of tents and rusty
cooking utensils. We knew the story of that gruesome
geometrical design. The previous spring a big camel
caravan started from Kalgan for Urga. When they
were in the heart of the desert the weather unexpectedly
turned and the caravan suddenly found itself in a
terrific blizzard. The travellers formed the camels
into a square, made a protective outer square with
all the goods and luggage they were carrying, and
built several tents in the centre. A few days after
they were believed to have reached this spot the
caravan was discovered under the snow; both men and
camels had been frozen to death* The human remains
were taken back to China, but the square of dead
camels was left to decay in the desert.

In this region the Gobi Desert is entirely barren
but for a few tamarisk bushes which somehow
manage to eke out a stunted existence. However.,
it is quite clear that in a former geological age the
Gobi must have been a fertile land with rich vegeta-
tion, for every now and then we came across petrified
tree-trunks in which the rings were still discernible,

The exit from the desert led through a terrible
canyon that somehow made me feel as though I
were temporarily buried alive. The bottom of the
canyon was so narrow that there was barely room for
the car to pass, the rock walls on both sides rising
sheer, so that only a narrow strip of sky was visible.
Here, too, many a caravan has met with disaster, when

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